Khushi Yadav, Vrinda Saxena,Naveen S Yadav

ABSTRACT

Traumatic dental injuries (TDIs) are among the commonest unintentional childhood injuries, yet their mental health dimension remains under-recognised in child and adolescent psychiatry. This narrative review synthesises evidence on the psychological and psychiatric sequelae of dental trauma in children and adolescents and outlines an agenda for Indian research and practice. Pooled international data suggest that roughly one in five children and adolescents experiences a TDI at some point, with wide variation across settings and study designs. Indian school-based surveys from Goa, Hyderabad and Faridabad converge with this global picture, additionally showing that most affected children never receive treatment and are frequently unaware they require it. Emerging evidence reframes psychosocial status as more than an outcome of dental trauma: poorer psychosocial functioning independently predicts the subsequent occurrence of TDIs, establishing a bidirectional relationship that merits mental health attention rather than dental attention alone. Beyond the physical injury, TDIs and their treatment are associated with impaired oral health-related quality of life, heightened dental and re-injury anxiety, and social withdrawal, particularly after anterior tooth injuries visible during smiling and speech. Purpose-built instruments now exist to quantify oral re-injury anxiety and general paediatric post-traumatic stress, but they have rarely been applied together in the same child, and no Indian study has yet screened a dental trauma cohort for post-traumatic stress disorder using a validated instrument. We propose that dental trauma be treated as a sentinel event warranting brief psychological screening in trauma dental clinics, and describe a feasible, low-resource, integrated dental-mental-health pathway suited to Indian schools and primary care. Future Indian research should prioritise prospective studies combining dental and psychiatric assessment after TDI, validated screening embedded within dental trauma services, and evaluation of trauma-informed first-aid education as a joint prevention strategy.